Californian visits Lubbock because it's 'most boring city'

Sunday

Lubbock has lots of attractions it likes to promote, but being deemed a boring city typically isn’t one of them.

But visitors come for all sorts of reasons. It turns out one reason is to see what’s so boring about the most boring city in America.

That’s why 30-year-old Steve Kranz of Oakland, California, who works at a 3-D printing startup company departed from a plane at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport a few weeks ago. As Kranz recalls, Lubbock back in 2014 was named the most boring of the 100 most-populated places in the U.S. by a real estate blog. The Avalanche-Journal wrote about it, as did other media outlets.

Dismiss the claims all you want, but Lubbock got some publicity out of that ranking. Kranz saw and remembered that Lubbock topped the list. Three years later when he was thinking about places he’d never been to visit, he thought of Lubbock from that list. He decided he’d come see for himself.

"I wanted to pick a place that I’d never been to, a city where I knew no one and basically just different from Oakland," he said. "I wanted to go to a place where people would almost ask, ‘why there?’ and I remembered Lubbock."

What was the Oaklander’s opinion of the place? Kranz sat down with A-J Media the morning of his flight out and said he really enjoyed it. So much so that he may end up visiting again.

"When you first think of Lubbock, or West Texas, my first thought is this old town that hasn’t changed since like the 1800s. I just imagine a town, not a city. But this is not a town. This is a city. It’s more diverse than I thought … And when you think about it, we’re all similar. We’re all American."

He also visited for political reasons. After seeing and reading about how divided the country is politically, Kranz said he wanted to visit a place that’s as conservative as Oakland is liberal. Kranz said West Texas fit that mold.

"I feel like this is really hurting our country," Kranz said of the political climate. "It’s just making people negative. I decided that I wanted to talk to people that I wouldn’t normally meet and just get to know them. To see what they’re about, what they want, what they’re like and also what they think about California. I’m here kind of celebrating America and the Union, really. America is huge and we have this diverse group of people and we all get to work together and have economies that flow between each other."

He was in Lubbock for over a week, and probably visited more places than some longtime residents of this city. He didn’t have an itinerary, but instead visited places spontaneously.

He visited most all of the museums in Lubbock, which he said were surprisingly informative and entertaining. He took in Texas Tech’s campus, which he said was the most beautiful campus he’d ever seen. He drove outside the city to see cotton crops and watch the sun set, which he said people in Oakland would be jealous of. He also attended a Tech football game, went to a play at the Lubbock Community Theater, saw a standup comedy event, visited the more scenic parks in East Lubbock and went to a bible class at a local church.

He also attended political events like the town hall hosted by Rep. Beto O’Rourke who’s running for Texas Senate, and a city council meeting.

Kranz is interested in running for office someday and said he stumbled across Mayor Dan Pope’s weekly video addresses. Kranz said he liked the transparency in the mayor’s videos and wanted to meet him.

Pope heard the reasons Kranz was visiting and publicly welcomed him before meeting. Pope also dismissed the description of Lubbock as the most boring city, saying he’s glad Kranz had the chance to come check it out for himself. He said it’s a testament to the city that there are things to do for an entire week.

Kranz, who came into Lubbock not knowing much of anything about it, said he really liked the place.

"When I first stepped off the plane there was a big sign that said ‘Lubbock, the friendliest city in America.’ After meeting people I believe it. Everyone is super nice," he said. "I mean, I really didn’t know what it was going to be like. It’s West Texas, I’m from California. We’re bitter enemies. But it was great."

Kranz said he talked politics with a few people he met at bars and said the opinion he got from the small sample size was that people here love their country and are concerned about the American dream.

"Some people are liberal, some people are conservative, but we’re not enemies," he said. "It doesn’t work like that. If you can’t work together you can’t get the job done … We all want the same thing. We want less crime, we want more prosperity and we all want to just by happy."

When people in California ask him how Lubbock was, Kranz said he’ll probably talk about how big it is. And how wide the roads are.

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